Bachelor of Arts in Geography

at Royal Holloway,University of London United Kingdom

In recent years, businesses of all sizes, across all major industry sectors have become project-based. Those projects can now easily span different companies, regions, time zones, and integrate diverse knowledge bases and disciplines. And business, services and governments are looking for teams that can plan, coordinate and control both the output and underlying processes of a project, made up of individuals who can make a powerful contribution to the decision making involved.

On our one-year Project Management MSc you’ll learn how to apply project management principles across a range of disciplines and business sectors, from fashion and film to the charity sector; from the sciences to working in government. We’ll equip you with practical tools and skills, plus an understanding of the academic theories underpinning them, to set you up on your future career path.

We place a strong emphasis on the scientific and technological revolutions underway and the process of technological convergence, which have had a major impact on both the older established engineering industries and the younger electronics, wireless, computer, media and creative industries and internet-based start-ups.

You’ll learn from highly experienced practitioners, including CEOs and senior executives with experience across a range of industries including manufacturing, electronics, finance, media and major consultancies (like PwC and AD Little Inc). These industry connections have informed the content and design of the course, in a way that will not only build on your existing knowledge and experience, but increase your chances of finding employment at a salary level higher than the graduate national average wage in your chosen sector.

The Centre for Professional Studies was founded in 2013, recognising that international industries, firms, organisations and governments are demanding exceptional candidates who have the knowledge base and practical skills to finance, manage and execute processes and projects successfully. It’s our ethos to combine academic excellence with industry related knowledge and expertise.

• Acquire the tools to succeed in today’s workplace, from applied management to financial and leadership skills in order to plan, design, execute and deliver projects on time and on budget
• You’ll gain the practical and academic qualifications to meet demands of employers across competitive global markets, including the industry-recognised PRINCE2 qualification.
• You’ll learn from highly experienced practitioners and senior executives with portfolios covering both complex, multi-disciplinary projects and small, bespoke interventions in niche sectors.

By combining the study of creative writing with English, you'll become an informed and critical reader as well as a confident and expressive writer - whether specialising as a poet, playwright, or author of fiction.

Studying at one of the UK's most dynamic English departments will challenge you to develop your own critical faculties. Learning to write creatively and critically analyse in tandem, you'll be exposed to a huge variety of literature while you develop your own writing practice. Studying English will allow you to place your writing within a wider cultural context of literature throughout history, considering key texts and acquiring a sound understanding of significant periods, genres, authors and ideas.

Modules are taught by nationally and internationally known scholars, authors, playwrights and poets who are specialists in their fields who write ground-breaking books, talk or write in the national media and appear at literary festivals around the world.  This means the course you take covers the most up-to-date ideas, whether in Creative Writing, Victorian Literature, Shakespearean studies or contemporary literature.

Find your voice as a writer and develop writing techniques, learn how to create, criticise and shape an artistic work: a valuable life skill with uses beyond writing poetry, plays or novels. From journalism and website creation to advertising and academic publishing – you'll be able to use the skills you pick up in character, voice, ambiguity, style and cultural context.

• Writing practice at the heart of your learning experience.
• Taught by high-profile, award-winning writers.
• Create and shape artistic work – ideal skills for a career in media or publishing.
• Choose one of three distinct pathways: fiction, poetry, or playwriting.
• Access to a thriving culture of creative writing.

Our two-year Information Security program with a year in industry will equip you with the knowledge and skills you need to join the rapidly expanding field of information security. We will prepare you to work at the forefront of some of the most exciting developments in 21st-century technology. You will gain first-hand experience of working in professional teams and applying your academic studies to real-world problems and scenarios. The mass creation, transmission, and storage of electronic data is one of the defining features of our age. Whilst the associated technologies bring us untold benefits, they also expose us to threats that require the specialist skills and experience of cyber security experts.

Our postgraduate Information Security programs were the first of their kind in the world. They are certified by GCHQ, the UK Government Communications Headquarters, and led by academics and industrial partners in one of the largest and most established Information Security Groups in the world. Our groundbreaking ISG is a UK Academic Centre of Excellence for research and home to an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber security.

In year 1 you will learn about cryptography, fraud detection, system security, network security, device security and all the technical, legal and commercial aspects of the industry, including how security itself should be managed. Your second year will include a full-time work placement, which will attract a salary and be assessed towards your final degree. On returning to campus you will complete a supervised dissertation on a topic of your choice. If you decide not to complete the second year you can revert to the standard MSc Information Security (1221) and complete your dissertation a year early to graduate at the end of year 1.

Our academic staff are renowned specialists in the field, with backgrounds in computer science, engineering, mathematics, statistics and social sciences. You will have access to our virtualisation software for experimenting with network security settings and ideas, as well as our Penetration Testing Laboratory and industry-sponsored Smart Card Centre.

We offer a friendly, supportive learning environment and you will have a dedicated personal advisor to guide you through your studies. The skills you gain will provide a solid foundation if you wish to progress to a PhD. Our graduates are in demand for their cutting-edge grasp of the field, their first-hand work experience, and their transferable skills such as data handling, analysis, problem solving, research, time management, team working, self-motivation and professionalism.

• You will join a worldwide network as one of over 4,000 alumni information security professionals
• Equip yourself with the knowledge and skills to work at a high level in the information security industry or pursue further postgraduate research.
• Benefit from first-hand experience of the world of work during your assessed year in industry.
• Our strong ties with industry mean we understand the needs of employers and our curriculum will ensure that you are well prepared for employment.

Gain a thorough grounding in the basis, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease by studying Biomedical Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London.

This comprehensive course will prepare you to join the ranks of biomedical researchers at the forefront of human health investigation. You’ll study biochemistry, physiology, cell biology, molecular biology and genetics before choosing from a range of optional modules in years 2 and 3, allowing you to specialise and follow your own particular interests.

As a 2nd and 3rd-year student, you’ll receive specialist teaching from local health professionals, allowing you to learn more about subjects including neuroscience and clinical diagnosis of disease. You’ll have the option to embark on a lab-based individual research project in your 3rd year, joining a renowned research culture that has seen former students contribute to published scientific papers.

You’ll benefit from a recent £16 million investment in state-of-the-art equipment for bioinformatics, mass spectrometry and protein and gene sequencing, as well as our excellent imaging facilities, including confocal laser scanning microscopes for 3D live-cell imaging.

Through your studies you will gain an impressive portfolio of transferable skills, making you an attractive prospect for potential employers. Invaluable lab experience, specialist learning and communication skills will help you to join our alumni in sectors including medical research, biotechnology and clinical trials coordination.

• Explore the function and integration of selected human physiological systems in normal physiology and disease.
• Become familiar with molecular biology techniques.
• Develop an understanding of the theory, technology, and clinical practice of human molecular genetics.
• Carry out an individual laboratory or theoretical investigation under supervision.

From climate change, food and water security and sustainable urbanisation, to poverty, health inequality, and migration, responding to the world’s challenges as a global society is more important than ever, requiring new thinking that cuts across traditional subject boundaries.

This new interdisciplinary degree is designed to address 21st-century issues facing humanity and our planet. It will provide the theoretical knowledge and skillset about our environments and environmentalisms for motivated individuals to develop their careers, as policy-makers, environmental experts and scientists, and advocates for change across diverse fields.

A key feature of this innovative degree is the opportunity to take modules across the departments of Biological Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geography and Psychology, with further contributions from other disciplines including options in Politics and Business & Management. Students can choose to specialise through one of several pathways, for example, developing as skilled campaigners able to lead grassroots movements, policy-makers able to develop frameworks for governance, and scientists who are able to communicate state-of-the-art findings in accessible language and with contextual nuance.

You will be taught by international research leaders across a broad range of topics, with options to acquire real-world experience through placements as part of an embedded approach to developing your employability and transferable skills. Highlights include a social change toolkit, equipping you with practical skills and a research project, designed to apply knowledge to real-world problems, and develop your expertise to contribute to social change.

• Examine key questions about environmental challenges locally & globally
• Develop an understanding of how social change can be achieved to address these challenges
• Learn with internationally recognised experts in their fields
• Become versatile in synthesising diverse knowledge and how to communicate this effectively.

Our MSc Finance degree course is ideal if you would like a career in the financial sector. Through your studies you will gain a strong grounding in core areas of finance and have the flexibility to specialise in areas such as fixed income securities and derivatives, investment and portfolio management, private equity and entrepreneurship finance, all skills that are essential for a career in finance. We will provide you with intensive training in the analysis of issues in finance and corporate policy while improving your analytical and technical expertise.

During your time here you will study core modules essential to a MSc Finance and with our optional modules you will be able to tailor your degree to your interests.

Our facilities include access to Bloomberg terminals, which are used by financial traders and investment banks globally. These give you access to live financial and economic data, portfolio construction and optimisation tools, information and analytics to support your studies. We are also equipped with state-of-the-art software packages such Stata, Matlab and Python. Matlab is the language of choice for the MSc Finance.

On graduation you will be skilled in financial analysis techniques, understand mathematical statistics and theories and have the tools to analyse how financial markets function. Consequently, you will be in a strong position to forge a career in the financial services, business and banking sectors.

A two-week pre-sessional and a term long mathematical methods course are offered to bring you up to speed on your quantitative skills.

• Graduate with excellent career prospects, with economics graduates having an impressive employment record and starting salaries amongst the highest in the country.
• After successfully having completed the degree, you will have already prepared for large sections of the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) level 1 exam.

The creation, transmission and storage of huge volumes of electronic data is one of the defining features of our age. Whilst these technologies bring us untold benefits, they also expose businesses, governments and individuals to repeated threats, such as fraud through data manipulation, deliberate sabotage and blackmail. As a result, businesses, governments and individuals around the world rely on the expertise and innovations of information security specialists, without which global communications systems would grind to a halt.

Want to join this expanding field and learn from the very best? Our flagship Information Security programme was the first of its kind in the world. It is certified by GCHQ, the UK Government Communications Headquarters, and taught by academics and industrial partners in one of the largest and most established Information Security Groups in the world. We are a UK Academic Centre of Excellence for cyber security research, and an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centre for Doctoral Training in cyber security. We work closely with industry, and much of our curriculum and research is informed and audited by the industry itself. Our teachers are specialists in the field, with backgrounds in computer science, engineering, mathematics, statistics and the social sciences.

Our broad curriculum encompasses cryptography, fraud detection, system security, network security, device security and the study of how security itself should be managed. You will learn about the technical, legal and commercial aspects of the industry and have the chance to complete a supervised dissertation on a topic of your choice. In a typical year you could benefit from lectures and seminars given by as many as 50 different guest speakers. You will also have access to our virtualisation software, for experimenting with network security settings and ideas, as well as to our Penetration Testing Laboratory and industry-sponsored Smart Card Centre.

We offer a friendly, supportive learning environment and you will have a dedicated personal adviser to guide you through your studies. The skills you gain will open up a range of high-level career options and provide a solid foundation if you wish to progress to a PhD. Our graduates are in demand for their cutting-edge grasp of the field as well as their technical expertise and transferrable skills such as data handling, analysis, problem solving and research. The programme can be completed in one year full-time, two years part-time, three to five years through Continuous Professional Development (CPD), or two to four years through distance learning.

• Equip yourself with the knowledge and skills to work at a high level in the information security industry or move into postgraduate research.
• Our strong ties with industry mean we understand the needs of employers and can ensure that you are well prepared to enter the world of work.
• We have a strong track record of helping graduates into successful, high-level careers in a wide range of sectors.
• Our MSc Information Security has been awarded GCHQ- certified status

Economics is one of the most influential and liveliest disciplines in today's world, affecting the lives and fortunes of everyone on the planet. This course offers a complete education in the theories and methods of economics, with a strong focus on analytical methods. The knowledge and transferable skills gained will lead to excellent career prospects in public and private management, financial institutions and in government.

Through this course you will develop an in-depth understanding of economics at all levels – from the company to the state, and beyond; you will learn to appreciate and apply the core theories of micro and macroeconomics; gain important quantitative and computing skills that are widely applicable as well as skills and experience in logical and philosophical reasoning.

Our balanced approach to research and teaching guarantees high quality teaching from subject leaders, cutting edge materials and intellectually challenging debates. Our courses follow a coherent and developmental structure which we combined with an effective and flexible approach to study.

• In depth understanding of most recent economic theories.
• Economics is everywhere from business to beauty.
• Understand game theory and how decisions are made.
• Opportunity to undertake a placement year in business.

BA Politics and International Relations looks at political ideas and processes, as well as global issues such as war and security, diplomacy and development.

You will gain a solid foundation in politics, the history of international relations and IR theory, studying subjects such as democracy, decolonisation, democratisation, international organisations, foreign-policy making, human migration and human rights. As you progress through the degree, the flexible nature of the course allows you to specialise in those aspects of domestic politics, political theory and international relations that most interest you.

By combining Politics and International Relations, you will gain an advanced understanding of how individuals, groups and states interact across borders, and how political institutions and ideas differ around the world.  As you progress through your studies, you will engage with important contemporary challenges, including, for example, the recent global economic crisis, changes in the European Union, human migration and the threats posed by terrorists and new communications technologies.

The Department of Politics and International Relations has a strong commitment to high-quality, cutting-edge research, all of which informs our teaching. We are a research community that applies various theories and methods to the study of domestic, transnational, regional and global politics.  We have expertise in African, British, Chinese, European, Middle East, North American and South Asian politics, and our research covers areas such as security, democratisation, youth politics, international diplomacy and political communication, as well as contemporary and radical theories of democracy and power.

• Learn how to approach problems in a rigorous and analytical way.
• Gain a solid foundation in politics, the history of international relations and IR theory.
• Our graduates pursue roles in many sectors including the civil service, public affairs and law.
• Consider contemporary challenges, such as terrorism, climate change and refugees.
• Work placement opportunities at MPs’ offices, NGOs and local government.

Our School of Business and Management has a fresh and intellectually challenging approach to research and education. Specialising in Accounting and Finance at Royal Holloway means that you will benefit from the in-depth knowledge of our academic experts.  You will study the core areas of financial accounting, management accounting and finance and obtain a thorough knowledge of both theory and practice. The valuable knowledge and understanding this degree will give you, combined with interpersonal and transferable skills, will lead to excellent career prospects.

Your studies will be grounded in the wider business environment, providing you with an understanding of international business, information systems, strategy, and ethical decision-making.  You will receive individual attention and the flexibility to take specialist options, such as business law, auditing and taxation.

This course is accredited by CIMA, CPA, CIPFA and ICAEW professional bodies. You may apply to the professional bodies for exemptions from some of their examinations. The number of exemptions depend on the options you choose and the marks you obtain on your modules.

As well as graduating with enhanced knowledge of accounting and finance, you will have commercial awareness, the ability to communicate clearly,work in a team, analyse and solve problems, and manage your time effectively. As a graduate you will be able to apply for exemptions and/or credit for prior learning from selected professional accounting bodies we have agreed exemptions with. The exemptions from examinations or credit for prior learning that students are granted will depend on courses chosen and the marks obtained on those courses.

• AACSB accredited - the longest-serving accrediting body and largest business education network worldwide.
• Examine the principles of financial decision-making.
• Understand the theory and techniques for appraising financing and investment decisions.
• Understand the basic components of financial statements.
• Understand information systems and the role they play in contemporary business.
• Accredited by CIMA, CPA, CIPFA and ICAEW